If any of you have look through the catelogue of iPhone/iPod touch games, you will find numerous carbon copies of the same game out there. One in particular is the matching genre. From one to another, it seems to be an endless cycle of the same old, same old re-skin and slapping it with a new price sticker method. Now there seems to be one game that wants to break the mold, Alien Glyphs. Klimov's game quickly changes your perception of the genre by adding flavor and much more to present to you something surprisingly delightful for your gaming pleasure.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fairly straight forward. You tap on the symbol from the set that is given to you to a similar one that appears on the top of the screen. Be aware you are given a time limit as once it's up another symbol appears. That's when you have to try to keep up by matching the symbols as fast as you can, as when the space is completely filled it's game over. The glyphs are all randomized as they slide to the left so you never know what to expect. There are three levels of difficulty and as you can determine they are easy, medium, and hard. Simple as it seems it gets surprisingly difficult, mostly in hard mode, as you frantically search for the same pattern but seems you are never fast enough as waves of more patterns appear.

There are many (glyph) sets to choose from and I found sticking with one type will make the game much easier as you remember their location or you may randomize the 100 sets to have a different experience each time.

To spice up the game there are power-ups and power-downs that are activated when you match the tile that contains it.

Graphics

This will not disappoint if you?re one of the many fans out there that enjoy the neon graphics. The art is wonderfully presented. From the opening menu to the start of the game it is pure eye candy. If the style does not suffice then there are three other skins to alternate from and more to come in future updates.

Sound

It contains two songs, one for the menu and the other in-game. I have grown to enjoy the music as it is very befitting for the game and matches the theme very well. The sound effects are one of the other things that the developer did well on as I found satisfaction with every touch a button and sound emitted with each match made.

Pro: High production valueEasy to jump right intoLuscious graphics

Con: Still a match game in its core so it will get repetitive sooner or later.Long tutorial for such a simple game (will be fixed in update).

Conclusion

Great visuals and sound mixed with a new way to match had me playing this game till nights end. So far it has begun to get a bit repetitive but open fient challenges should keep you busy while waiting for the update.

I can easily recommend this to anyone who enjoys a great pick up and play game. Alien Glyphs is one of those addictive, easy to learn and hard to master type of games and for 99 cents who could go wrong. Don't be discouraged, like I was, by what genre it's from.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Graphics: -5- Great visuals make it hard to ignore. Sound: -4.5- Cool soundtracks definitely add more to the game.Controls: -5- Not a single problem with the responsiveness of the controls.Gameplay: -4- All in all it is still a matching game but may I say the best of its kind.

Playing Hints and Tips: -Want to get a really high score? Then grab a friend to help you out.-Get used to a certain glyph set and it will be much easier to obtain a higher score.

While I too agree that the tutorial is MUCH too long currently, there are some pretty useful hints in there like what the various power-ups and power-downs do as well as how you can score some bonuses.

I'm one of the Alien Glyphs developer team Glad to tell that we are working on update now.Multiplayer lan mode (Wi-Fi, bluetooth) is in progress, also we will add voices for power ups, new visual themes and new game modes.I' ll tell later about it more exact. Also I will upload new theme screens if it is interesting for forum visitors.

I just want players to understand how serious update will be:- 20% performance increase- Multiplayer- Pleasent womans voice in computer style for different game events (strikes, power ups)- 2 New game modes + High scores tables for each- Insane difficulty for survival mode + High score table(now we have only easy, middle and hard)- 2 (or 3 new visual themes)- Shorter tutorial- New OpenFeint achievements

We are working on update.Two new modes are completed and we are going on with update....Some people e-mailed us and asked to make time restricted game modes. We understand that survival game can lasts hours, also one of the record which is stored in high scores table shows us 1 hour and 40 mins of playing the game (respect to the player) . Also we had some couple of words which said: ??it would be good to have every game random simbols (glyphs)?.

You can follow us on our blogs (http://v-k-games.blogspot.com/ or http://vkgames.wordpress.com/) and get full information about what we do for the update.

We tested multiplayer mode: And we like the result:It supports up to 4 players at the same time.There are also different settings for game type when starting the server.And it has good ping on bluetoothFull story you can read in our blog , or join our Twitter

Here is final list of all features for Alien Glyphs update 1.1 1. Performance increase 15%2. Multiplayer mode ? Deathmatch (up to 4 players at the same time compete their visual memory and reaction)3. Three new modes:- Quick Play ? Survival game mode. Mixed visual themes with dynamic escalating difficulty- Time Attack ? Mode to strike 60 glyphs with your best time- Count Down ? 3 minutes to play, get the best Score4. Extra hard difficulty (Insane) for Survival mode5. Four new OpenFeint achievements for any type of difficulty6. One new great power up ? Robot ? you can activate Auto ? Play for limited time7. Four new visual themes (skins)- Plastic, Acid, Doodle, Fur8. Voice notifications: pleasant woman computer style voice will tell you about main events9. Graphic interface redisigned10. Global High Scores for all new modes11. News integration12. OpenFeint 2.3.1 ready13. German localization14. Minor bugfix

ALIEN GLYPHS update is outWhat's new in it.1. Performance increase 15%2. Multiplayer mode ? Deathmatch (up to 4 players at the same time compete their visual memory and reaction)3. Three new modes:- Quick Play ? Survival game mode. Mixed visual themes with dynamic escalating difficulty- Time Attack ? Mode to strike 60 glyphs with your best time- Count Down ? 3 minutes to play, get the best Score4. Extra hard difficulty (Insane) for Survival mode5. Four new OpenFeint achievements for any type of difficulty6. One new great power up ? Robot ? you can activate Auto ? Play for limited time7. Four new visual themes (skins)- Plastic, Acid, Doodle, Fur8. Voice notifications: pleasant woman computer style voice will tell you about main events9. Graphic interface redisigned10. Global High Scores for all new modes11. News integration12. OpenFeint 2.3.1 ready13. German localization14. Minor bugfix

ALien Glyphs Lite version available now!You cn try it for free:What's in IT:Tutorial (without any limitation)Infinite survivalMultiplayerModes: Time Attack and Count Down (without any limitation)6 Visual themes (skins)Voice notificationsDifferent power-ups and penalties.Personal Highscores board